November 28-29, 2014 marked the convening of the Teaching Workshop on Arts and Law Majors of The Open University of China (OUC) with the theme of building consensus to enhance cooperation in advancing the constructions of majors and disciplines throughout the OUC. Those attending the workshop included over 140 representatives from 40 local open universities and radio and television universities (RTVUs), as well as Wuhan University, the OUC’s Degree Cooperation Institute of Higher Education.
OUC Vice President Yan Bing gave a special report at the workshop. In his view, the successful operation of the OUC and the overall transformation of the RTVU system must focus on the reform and innovation of learner growth models and mechanisms, as well as the improvement of training quality. In the past, arts and law majors have served as pioneers in several aspects, such as teaching construction and reform.
Yan Bing gave suggestions regarding the current teaching of arts and law majors. The first is to pay attention to the reform and innovation of the OUC’s learner growth model and mechanism and to answer five specific questions: who will be trained, who will do the training, what training methods can be used, how will people be trained and what are the objectives of the training. The second is to make problem-oriented innovations in teaching through continuous teaching reform. Great importance should be attached to the reform of teaching content and the course system. The third is to follow vocational education while focusing on the regular university system. The fourth is to strike a balance between teaching construction and teaching reform, striving for steady progress. The fifth and last is to pay attention to the construction of courses and majors, and to upgrade and demonstrate the OUC’s overall capacity for course, major and discipline construction in line with its orientation and overall development objectives.
In his report, Kuang Guiqiu, director of the OUC Academic Affairs Department, spoke about the focus of current OUC academic work, detailed the implementation of the “Assistance Plan for New Industrial Workers”, and described the progress of teaching and examination reform. Liu Zhimin, director of the OUC Learner Support and Student Affairs Centre, introduced the progress of the OUC learner support, outlined the implications of the “six-network integration” teaching model, and described the trial operation of existing online courses. The attendees spoke about arts and law major teaching methods at their respective RTVUs, and held discussions on training objectives, course system reform, practical teaching and the trial operation of online courses.
Ye Zhihong, director of the OUC Department of Arts and Law, gave a concluding speech entitled “Building Consensus to Enhance Cooperation and Advance the Construction of OUC Majors and Disciplines.” He said in his speech that a consensus had to be built in order to strengthen cooperation and run the OUC successfully. As a university entity, the OUC must pay attention to enhancing the construction of courses, majors and disciplines, and make sure that its main task and training objective is to train practical workers and to improve the quality of China’s citizens. The course system will be reformed and innovated to construct a system and mechanism with multiple entrances and exits, and to integrate degree and non-degree education so as to meet the diverse needs of different learners. First-class digital, modular and mobile learning and micro-lecture resources will be developed for interconnection of degree and non-degree education to meet the needs of social development. The construction of online teaching teams will be explored in response to unbalanced development and student distribution, in order to integrate resources and achieve cross-regional teaching organization so as to continuously improve learner support. Efforts will be made to enhance teaching team and discipline construction so as to lay a foundation for the optimization of the OUC’s capacity and level in terms of school management. Cooperation between the OUC and local open universities and RTVUs will be strengthened to encourage resource sharing and mutual benefit.
A Photo of All Attendees
By Yu Qingyao, the OUC